Quote:
Originally Posted by Brainpathology
You're right it's wonderful... in fact let's just skip every city because building transit in cities is so hurty and hard... instead of FT Collins it can start in Wray, then Limon, then Elbert, then Fowler, Pueblo West, San Isabel, Aguilar, Trinidad (obviously the hub of the entire system) and finally to connect it to Albuquerque it can terminate in Las Vegas (NM).
Instead of spending a little more we can then insure that we waste every single dollar we spend!! Obviously the big GOP conspiracy of putting morons in charge of every project to prove to every voter that Government is completely inept at solving problems is working perfectly!
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Indeed.
This reveals some of the hidden costs of how the old downtown rail yards were divided up to get maximum street frontage at the expense of cheap through heavy rail traffic at DUS (thanks to....)
And, the costs for not making DUS a through station keep piling up....
Of course, the through Denver option has its problems, too.
A) Even if coal trains are shunted east vial some 250 to 300 miles of new tracks between Fort Morgan and Las Animas, in addition to line rehabilitation, local traffic will generate some 10 to 15 trains on the line between north Denver and Pueblo per day.
B) Some of Colorado Springs brighter movers and shakers had portions of the 2nd track on the Denver to Pueblo land in El Paso county ripped up in the 1970s.
Yet, IMO, the moving the rail traffic east and developing exiting right of way is the cheapest solution.
Rather than making new HSR at $100 million or more per mile per track, making the Corridor a 110 mph electrified corridor with shared freight and passenger service makes more sense (run the freight trains in groups of 5 or so at a time, each way) Provided tonnage limitations per train (no coal or tanker trains- maybe up to 20 cars or so per train), and, pull the trains from Denver to Pueblo (or the Springs) via electric locomotive, which are far quieter. Triple track the Corridor in 10 to 20 mile stretches.
Cost? $3 billion or so in current dollars for the higher speed rail and $1 billion for the new lines built out east on the prairie.
Interface the south lines, the DIA lines, the North Metro lines, and, a future Greeley line somewhere around the Stockyards in a Big station.
Of course this will not be done, because, as most of us are starting to realize, we live in an era where the biggest property plays are subsidized with taxpayer money, and, the more money the tax payers kick into the kettle, the more stew for the moneyed few.
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